Pieces of Time
by Green Miscreant
Summary: The day Lily discovered she was pregnant is mostly a blur. There are, however, six particular moments that stand out in her memory, and when things start to fall apart, a certain Marauder is there to make everything better. JP/LE, SB/LE-friendship


**Hello, all and welcome to my second delve into writing James/Lily with minor Frank/Alice (and I mean _minor_)**

**Disclaimer - despite being from the same country, I sadly, am not the Queen that J.K. Rowling is**

**Warnings - a few minor swears, nothing too serious, brief alcohol consumption and my interpretation of James and Sirius' friendship**

**Written for - OTP Boot Camp Challenge, prompt is 'Queasy'/ Friendship Boot Camp Challenge using prompt 'Baby'/ Favourite Hogwarts House Boot Camp Challenge, prompt of 'Unexpected' and The If You Dare Challenge with the prompt 'Children'**

* * *

The day that Lily Potter discovered that she was pregnant could only be recalled in a series of vague memories that all seemed to join together into a single, twenty-four hour time period, but how exactly, Lily wouldn't have been able to say. In fact, there were only six distinct moments that were clear enough in her mind for her to recall and string together into some semblance of order.

**~xoxo~**

_1. _The newly familiar wave of nausea hit in the early hours of the morning; four-oh-three a.m. to be precise, something which had Lily mentally cursing her body's internal clock as she slipped out of the bed, careful not to awaken James, her husband of five months, as she did so. Pushing the urge to vomit down, the red head quickly jammed her size ten feet (something James and Sirius had entertained themselves with for _days_ when they had found out) into a pair of slippers that had snowy white owls on them and shuffled across the room, still half-asleep, to grab her navy blue, fluffy dressing gown off the back door and pulled it tightly around her body as she stepped out into the still pitch dark hallway. She crept down the corridor, being extra-careful to avoid the creaky floorboard that she knew was lurking under the plush cream carpet outside Sirius' room, something he'd complained about enough in the two years they'd been living in the medium sized, three bedroom semi-detached house that they rented from a man named Brian.

Lily stepped into the bathroom, casting a wandless silencing charm on the door and turning on the lights as she sank to her knees in front of the empty toilet bowl, her stomach rebelling against what she'd had for dinner. Twenty minutes later found her flushing the toilet with one hand and wiping the back of the other across her mouth. When she finally rose from the uncomfortable crouch she had been in, the young witch observed her reflection in the mirror above the sink critically as she washed her hands. Her face was pallid and sweaty, her normally glossy, fiery hair looking somewhat lacklustre as it clung in tendrils to her forehead and her usually sparkling eyes seemed almost sunken into her skull, the circles underneath them were so big. With a sigh, Lily pushed her damp hair out of her face roughly and began wondering when she'd get over whatever bug she had picked up.

"Fourth time this week," she whispered grumpily, her entire body freezing almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, her eyes widening almost comically wide. "It can't be." Lily breathed, not wanting to believe that it was possible.

"There's no way that that's it." The rational part of the nineteen-year old's brain finally kicked in and she gave herself both a mental and physical shake, giving herself the best impression of McGonagall's stern look she could manage. "Nothing you can do about it right now." With that, she reached to open the door, ending the silencing charm and flipping the lights off.

When she re-entered the bedroom and crept back under the duvet, after throwing her dressing gown over the arm of the forest green armchair in the corner and kicked off her slippers, she'd been unsurprised to find that James had woken up some time after she'd left and he smiled sleepily at her as she got comfortable again.

"Everything alright, love?" He asked voice gravelly from lack of use and Lily smiled to herself at just how adorable he sounded.

"Everything's fine. I just needed some water." She replied easily, snuggling closer to the warm body in front of her when a large hand gently tucked a lock of auburn hair behind her right ear and then moved to catch one of hers.

"Alright, love you." The words weren't much more than a breath against her forehead, but Lily grinned all the same; she'd never tire of hearing those words. The hand that hadn't been caught between both of James' found itself resting on her flat stomach and she fell asleep to thoughts of a baby with bright green eyes and messy black hair.

**~xoxo~**

_2._ She had decided on what she was going to do by the time she'd gotten up later that morning; after James and Sirius had left for Auror training, she was going to owl her old school friend Marlene, a healer at St. Mungo's, and ask for an appointment. For the moment though, she'd have to content herself with making breakfast for the three of them and have it ready for when the two boys finally dragged themselves out of bed.

Sirius announced his arrival into the kitchen by almost walking into Lily as he yawned so widely his eyes screwed shut, meaning he couldn't see where he was going. With reflexes borne from both Quidditch and Auror training, he instinctively caught the plate of toast that had started to slip from Lily's fingertips and grinned sheepishly when she reached out to slap his arm with the same hand.

"Prat! You nearly made me drop everything." She grumbled good-naturedly as she reached out to take the plate back, careful not to spill any of its contents.

"Sorry, didn't see you." He scratched the back of his head, sending already sleep-tousled hair flying into his amused grey eyes. "If you weren't such a short-arse, maybe I would've."

"Oh, haha. Ever the comedian." She pushed him out of the way and moved around the oven James had insisted they buy in order to get to the rectangular dining table set up on the other side of the room. She set down both plates and turned to watch Sirius finish making the three cups of tea she'd started with a mere wave of his wand and a muttered _'Mobiliarbus' _, the teaspoons stirring by themselves as milk sloshed out of the bottle and into the cups. The Animagus glanced over his shoulder when he heard the redhead giggle quietly to herself.

"What's got you so amused, Evans?" Quirking an eyebrow at her, Sirius levitated all three mugs over to the table, looking on without much interest as they all moved to their correct places.

"You do. Never thought I'd see you being all domesticated." The glare that was being aimed in her direction had Lily laughing again, her emerald eyes alight with mirth and it wasn't long before the trainee Auror joined in, choking on the mouthful of tea he had taken moments before she'd spoken. Once they'd calmed down enough, Sirius snorted derisively and reached over to tear off a piece of the witch's toast, ignoring her indignant protests and popping it into his mouth with relish.

"I even put the toilet seat down and everything, now." He answered when he'd finished chewing, sliding his own plate out of the way when Lily looked like she was about to retaliate.

"And what a lovely housewife you'll make for someone, I'm sure." James' voice from the doorway had both heads snapping in his direction, two entirely different kinds of smiles lighting up their faces; Lily's was soft and loving, whereas Sirius had an impish, mischievous smirk tugging at his lips.

"I'll be no such thing. Why would I commit and limit myself to only one person, when there are so many others out there?" Sirius grinned in anticipation, knowing what was coming next and formulating the response in his head.

"Here I was thinking I meant something to you, Padfoot. If that's how you truly feel then I just don't know what to say." James pretended to wipe away a tear as he sank into the only remaining chair, instantly reaching for his tea and smiling when he noticed that Lily was paying them absolutely no attention, instead focused on the morning paper and searching for the results of the previous day's Puddlemere United v. Caerphilly Catapults game.

"Well, it works both ways, Prongsie; I won't be your bit on the side, and you insist you love Evans more than you love me." He gave a long-suffering sigh, although there was a smile playing at the corner of his lips, which he covered by shoving almost the entire slice of quickly cooling toast into his mouth.

"Can you ever forgive me? I have loved you the longest, after all, _darling_." A slightly sardonic emphasis was placed on the endearment, and Sirius grinned wickedly at the fingernails he'd begun to inspect for any remaining dirt from their latest excursion into Moony's back garden.

"I expect expensive gifts as proof that you really do love me. If they're up to scratch, I'll see what I can do." James scoffed quietly and rolled his eyes at a silently amused Lily, who was now smiling behind the clenched fist she was resting her chin on.

"Of course. Anything for you, oh light-of-my-life." The two boys grinned at each other and, after an interruption of _'You're going to be late'_, quickly finished off their meals. Both males paused to kiss Lily's cheek when they began to hurry out of the room, the redhead giving them a warm smile as they did so.

A few minutes later and she heard the muffled shout of _'Goodbye,'_ before the front door slammed shut after the pair of them; there was a designated Apparation point about a ten minute walk away from their house. As soon as she was sure they were gone, she began to think about how she was going to word the letter she was planning on writing. Marlene McKinnon was an old friend from their time at Hogwarts, who had become a Healer after school, and Lily was hoping she'd be able to arrange an appointment with her. She'd done the cleaning up manually, using the extra time it gave her to begin thinking about what she was going to say.

_ Dear Marley,_

_ Hello, darling. It's been a while hasn't it? For that, I can only apologise; I've been extremely busy with work and doing some stuff for Bee. Anyway, this isn't exactly a social call, at least, not entirely. I was wondering if it would be possible to make an appointment at St. Mungo's at any point in the next week or so. Keep it to yourself, Marls, but I think I might be pregnant and obviously I just want to make sure. So, let me know when you can and I'll see you soon._

_ Eternally yours,_

_ Lily Potter_

Reading over what she had written, Lily nodded to herself in satisfaction. She then folded the parchment in half and summoned an envelope from a draw in one of the kitchen cupboards. As if sensing that he was needed, her personal owl, a tawny named Sapias, flew in through the permanently open window and landed on the table with a rustle of wings and a low, friendly hoot. She offered him some of her toast as she attached the note to his leg and gave him a gentle stroke when she was done.

"Take this to Marlene McKinnon and wait for an answer, please, regardless of how long it takes." Sapias gave her an affectionate nip on the tip of her finger and then vanished as quickly as he'd appeared.

**~xoxo~**

_3._ To say that Marlene had come through for her would be a major understatement; within half an hour of sending the note, the owl had returned with a quickly scribbled answer from the blonde mediwitch that read:

_ Dearest Lils,_

_ I haven't got much time to write this; this morning's turning out to be pretty busy. You are in incredible luck, my lovely. There's been a cancellation, so I have an opening at two o'clock this afternoon. I take it I'll see you there? We can talk properly when you get here._

_ Love always,_

_ Marls_

It was the reason that Lily found herself sitting in a hospital room at St. Mungo's, waiting for the other woman to come back and give her the news that, either way, was going to change her life. There was a soft knock on the door, followed by it slowly being pushed open and a woman with long, light blonde hair tied back at the base of her neck in a tight bun stepped into the room, not quite closing the door behind her. She was dressed in a pair of Muggle-like scrubs, her official Healer robes hanging off a hook on the back of the door and when she caught the shorter woman's eye she gave her a reassuring smile.

"So, I just looked at the results of the tests we ran, and, in approximately eight months, you're going to be a mum." There was no obvious reaction from the younger girl and Marlene felt herself frown in worry. "Lily, love, d'you hear me? You're having a baby!" When Lily did no more than blink at her, the Healer quickly crouched in front of where she was sat on the only bed in the room and grasped both hands in her own.

"Okay, what's wrong?" Emerald eyes snapped around to meet turquoise, giving absolutely nothing away as to what their owner was feeling.

"Hmm? Nothing's wrong. It's just a massive shock, that's all. James will be so happy when I tell him." Marlene looked like she wanted to say more, but a tap on the partially open door had both women looking to see who was interrupting them. A young, fresh out-of-school looking, student mediwizard stood in the doorway, rearranging the cap covering his dark brown hair, an apologetic smile on his face. The blonde quickly straightened up and slipped back into professional mode within seconds.

"What can I do for you, Benjy?"

"Sorry to bother you, Healer McKinnon, but your next appointment's here." The boy waited for a nod of acknowledgment before disappearing back out into the bustling corridor.

"Well, I shouldn't keep you if you've got other patients to look after." Lily went to dart out the door, but Marlene caught her by the shoulder and span her around so they were facing each other.

"I'll owl you tomorrow, after you've had a chance to tell James and the others, with another appointment sometime next week. We'll go over everything you'll need to know and set things up properly," the taller woman pulled her friend into a tight hug and rested her chin on the sleek, russet coloured hair. "It's going to be absolutely fine."

Lily had left shortly after that and headed down to the first floor in somewhat of a daze, barely hearing her name being called by a familiar female voice. It wasn't until there had been a light tap on her shoulder that she really even noticed someone wanted her attention, but when she realised who it was, an involuntary smile crept onto her face.

"Alice! I'm so sorry; I didn't hear you call." Alice Longbottom closely followed by her husband, Frank, were quick in bestowing her with warm hugs.

"That's alright. How are you?" The other woman asked as Frank wrapped an arm around her shoulders, an irrepressible smile lighting up his face. Seemingly remembering exactly where they were, the brunette's eyes widened. "There's nothing wrong, is there?"

"N-no, everything's absolutely fine. I just had a check-up with McKinnon." Alice smiled at the mention of their friend. Alice had been a Ravenclaw in the year above with Marlene, and the two had met each other through the blonde, becoming fast friends through their mutual love of Charms. "What about you? What are you doing here?" Lily urged, having noticed the little looks they kept giving each other. They looked at each other again, Frank giving a 'go on' gesture and the other witch laughed happily, before reaching out and pulling the redhead into another hug.

"I'm pregnant!" She babbled her happiness so infectious that Lily grinned over her shoulder at the brunet stood behind them.

"Oh, wow! Congratulations, you two! How far along are you?" They pulled apart and Alice placed a hand on her stomach, looking down to stare at it lovingly.

"Around three weeks, give or take."

"Well, it looks like our children will be extremely close in age." The younger said wryly, causing both Longbottoms' to pause and stare at her in shock.

"You mean you're pregnant too?" Frank asked and she nodded in conformation, although her face was virtually expressionless.

"It's why I'm here. Marley ran the tests for me." She could feel Alice's dark brown eyes studying her and wasn't surprised when her old friend asked her something she'd been wondering herself.

"Are you okay with it? You seem kind of indifferent about the whole thing."

"I don't think it's quite sunk in yet. I mean, two hours ago, it was just a possibility and now I'm having a real baby." She offered the other two a weak smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Oh, Lily," Alice sighed with a sympathetic smile. "At least we'll have each other through each other through this. I bet James will be ecstatic when he finds out! He's always wanted children." Frank made a noise in the back of his throat and checked the watch on his wrist.

"Speaking of, we'd better make a move and break the news to Mad-Eye," he rolled his eyes at the mention of their boss. "You know what he's like. A paranoid, overcautious git."

"He's good at his job, though." The female Auror commented idly. She grabbed Lily's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "We really must dash, or Moody'll be using our guts for office decorations, and we'll never have this baby! I'm sure we'll be in touch, sooner or later." She gave a dreamy sigh and her eyes glazed over for a second. "Our babies are going to change the world, Lily, I can feel it! Just look at who they have for parents."

Frank and Alice left soon after that and Lily made her way to the nearest non-regulated Apparation point, stopping on the way to pick up a few groceries from the corner shop on the way home.

**~xoxo~**

_4._ The reality of her situation hit around an hour after she got back to the house. She put the shopping away and was listening to the wireless when the overwhelming sense of panic struck. Lily retrieved the piece of parchment the pregnancy test results were on and didn't even try to stop the tears that glistened in her eyes from falling.

"I'm not ready for this." She repeated to herself in a fierce whisper, rocking back and forth on the chocolate brown sofa that took up one wall of the sitting room. "I can't have a baby now!" Having repeated the action for quite some time, she finally collapsed sideways, emotionally and physically exhausted and brought her legs up so she was lying in the foetal position. Despite how tired she suddenly was, the irony was not lost on her and she snorted to herself, the noise sounding shaky even to her own ears.

When Sirius came home from work early that evening, he found her in exactly the same position and could tell straight away that something was wrong with his best friend's wife. For one thing, there were tear tracks down her cheeks that hadn't even dried yet and her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, and for another, she had a crumpled up piece of parchment clutched in one hand that Sirius suspected had something to do with it. Knowing better than to let his curiosity get the best of him, he resisted taking it out from beneath her curled fingers by reminding himself of what she'd most likely do to him if she found out. As he was silently debating with himself about what he do, Lily's eyes opened blearily and darted around the room, when they finally landed on him, she blinked owlishly at him a few times before speaking.

"Sirius? What're you doin' here?" She wanted to know, her voice croaky and her speech slurred.

"Funnily enough, Evans, I live here." The black-haired man answered wryly, tucking a strand of almost shoulder length hair behind an ear and moving to look out the window, poking the net curtain out the way with his wand. Behind him, he heard the witch huff in mild exasperation and watched her move to sit up, her feet lowering to the carpet, a hand reaching up to drag through the tangled mane that she tried to pass off as hair, in the limited reflection the glass offered.

"No' what I mean', git. Why're you here without James?"

"He's working late," Before she could interrupt, which he knew she would, if given half the chance, he quickly went on to explain. "Mad-Eye caught him charming the bog roll in the men's loos to scream whenever they got too close to someone's bum. As a result, he has to clean the entire bathroom the Muggle way." Sirius twisted to grin at her, frowning when she didn't even so much as utter a reprimand about her husband's behaviour. He crossed the room in three strides, dropping down next to her and shifting his body so they were facing each other.

"Alright, what's wrong?" It seemed to take an age for his words to sink in and she looked at him quizzically when they finally did, her hand unconsciously tightening around the slip of parchment.

"What d'you mean? Everything's fi-" She began but was cut off by the shake of a dark head.

"Don't give me that. Something's off. You've been acting strange since this morning." She didn't give an answer immediately and he sighed impatiently. "You can tell me, Lils. Whatever it is that's bothering you, you can tell me." Green eyes glanced at him quickly and he nodded encouragingly at her. Then, so slowly it was almost painful, the redhead unfolded the parchment and handed it over to one of her closest friends without a word.

His eyes scanned quickly over the neat black ink in front of him, his jaw slackening slightly and he turned to stare at her disbelievingly. She returned his gaze evenly and gave him a smile that was verging on being sardonic.

"You're pregnant!" Sirius demanded, the exclamation sounding more like a question as his voice rose in pitch.

"So the experts tell me." Lily stared fixedly at the opposite wall, a small frown barely visible, but the Animagus noticed it anyway.

"Then what's the problem? You've wanted children for a while now," She whipped her head in his direction and he smiled slightly. "Don't glare at me like that; I've seen the way you look at Molly and Arthur Weasley's kids whenever we bump into them. Surely it's a good thing, right?" Her frown deepened and she focussed on her knees.

"What's the problem?" She let out a hysterical laugh, tears beginning to clog up her nose and eyes again. "We're in the middle of a sodding war, Sirius, that's the bloody problem! Bringing a child into this would be _so_ irresponsible and reckless." Sobs started to wrack her small frame and the wizard pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on top of her head gently and staring at nothing in particular.

"You're a Gryffindor, silly; irresponsible and reckless are what we do best." He heard her snort in amusement and lifted a hand to stroke over her hair comfortingly as she sniffled into his chest. His voice turned soft as he asked the next question. "You want the baby, don't you?"

"Of course I do! But it doesn't look like it's going to end any time soon, and how could I possibly go through with having this baby, knowing how dangerous the outside world is? It's the only thing I've been able to think about at all today."

"The world's dangerous and scary anyway, regardless of whether or not we're in the middle of a war. You can't not have this sprog, Lily. For all we know, it might be the saviour of the world!" There was a watery laugh and Sirius chuckled, his hand rubbing soothing circles into the younger girl's back. "Maybe the war will end soon; I mean, Death Eater activity has been rather limited lately, and trust me, I'd know. Hiding from the truth isn't going to make it go away; it's just letting Voldemort win."

It was quiet for a few minutes, the only noise being Lily's sniffing as she tried to stem her tears. Then she whispered something into the silence that made Sirius hug her tighter.

"I'm scared. I'm terrified, Pads, and I don't know what to do."

"I'll tell you what you're going to do. You're going to go through with this pregnancy, have this baby and be the best mother the world has ever seen, and do you know why? Because you're Lily _bloody_ Potter and you don't take shit from anyone. Besides, you're not going to be alone; we, as in the Marauders, are going to be with you every step of the way, because it's not just gonna be you and Prongs' kid, you know. The little brat's going to be ours too, and we'll die to protect it." Those words set Lily off again and Sirius allowed himself to let a few tears fall too.

"Thank you." She whispered, both of them relaxing against the sofa, but not quite letting go of each other.

**~xoxo~**

_5._ James Potter slammed the front door shut with such a loud bang that it could be heard on the other side of the house, knocking its other two occupants out of the contented silence they had been sitting in. They could hear him muttering to himself all the way down the hall and smiled understandingly at each other, waiting for him to find them. A few minutes later and he stalked into the room, the frown that had been gracing his features melting into a smile at the sight of two of the most important people in his life.

"How'd cleaning the bathroom go?" Sirius inquired cheekily, his eyes tracking James' movement across the floor as he approached them, seemingly not bothered by how close the two of them were sitting.

"Really, really shitty. I had Mad-Eye breathing over my shoulder for the better part of an hour; to make sure I wasn't 'shirking my responsibilities'." He made a face and collapsed onto the only available space left on the sofa, his legs dangling over the arm and his head coming to rest gently in Lily's lap. He reached up to brush some hair out of her face and grinned at her. "Hi."

"Hi." She smiled, discreetly thumping the man sat next to her when he pretended to gag at the display of affection. The noise had hazel eyes glaring across at his best friend of eight years.

"That's a point. Where the bloody hell were you in my time of need, Padfoot?" The teenager in question shrugged noncommittally and shot a questioning glance in Lily's direction. She inclined her head a fraction of an inch, something her husband thankfully didn't see as he was still glaring at Sirius.

"Sorry, mate, but I'm just better at not getting caught than you are. That, and Moody thinks I learnt my lesson after the last time he caught me. I still haven't completely got the smell of dungbombs out of my nose, just so you know. Besides, a certain someone needed me more than you." Instantly James' attention was on her, his intense gaze a mixture of questioning and concern and she gave him a reassuring smile to indicate there wasn't anything wrong.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm fine," she laughed, running her fingers through the unruly mess of black hair that kept falling into his face, careful to avoid the pair of rectangular glasses perched precariously on his nose. "Well, that's not entirely true." She mused, placing a comforting hand on his nearest shoulder when he tensed and from out the corner of her eye she could see Sirius grinning to himself.

"Oh, for the love of Merlin, please put the poor sod out of his misery. He looks like he's about to explode."

"I don't really know how to say this delicately, so I'm just going to come out and say it. James, I'm almost a month pregnant." There was a stunned silence, the bespectacled man trying to comprehend what he was being told and the other two waiting for him to say something.

"Y-you're pregnant?" He practically yelped, his voice jumping up a few octaves in his shock. She murmured an affirmative and his reaction was almost instantaneous; his legs swung around so his feet were touching the floor and he tugged the redhead with him as he jumped up from the sofa. He laughed disbelievingly and engulfed her in an extremely tight hug, spinning them in circles times and repeating the same four words over and over again until they both got dizzy. "We're having a baby!"

"Told you he'd be excited about it." Sirius said dryly, causing James to pull back slightly and mock frown at them.

"Hang on. You told _Padfoot_ before telling me? Lils, that's so not on."

"Well, if you weren't so thick as to get yourself caught pulling off one of you ridiculous pranks, I wouldn't have had to, now would I?" Lily asked sarcastically and he had the decency to look partly ashamed at this statement, although his eyebrows rose almost to his hairline with the next one. "It's probably a good thing you weren't here when I told him."

"Thank Christ for that. Can you imagine what he would've been like if he'd seen you in the state you were in?"

"Why? What state?" James sounded worried and both were quick to assure him that it wasn't anything bad.

"I panicked a little bit," Sirius snorted loudly at this and she twisted to glare at him so fiercely that he held his hands up in surrender, "I was, and still am, terrified about bringing a child into this world, given the fact we're fighting a war. I got fairly emotional over it and was really unsure about what to do, because we're in constant danger; especially you two! Pads calmed me down and talked it over with me." She'd been hugged tighter as she spoke and James peered over her head at his best friend curiously.

"Are you sure we're talking about the same Sirius? Because the one I know is a right prat, who wou-." His voice trailed off as he was given a rough shove on the shoulder.

"Shut up. What exactly, dear Prongs, was I supposed to do? Crying women give me a rash in the most unpleasant of places and you would have gone mental if I hadn't done anything, so you, my friend, can do one."

"Alright, keep your ridiculously long hair on." The two boys looked each other in the eye and cracked equally mischievous grins at the exact same moment, stepping forward to hug each other. It was a way for them to convey all the emotions they were feeling, but refused to say aloud and they both revelled in it for a few minutes.

"I'll tell Moony and Wormtail to get their arses here, shall I?" Sirius asked, rubbing his hands together and heading for the jar of Floo powder they kept on the mantel piece above the fireplace in the far corner of the room. James nodded in agreement and caught Lily around the waist from behind, resting his larger hands lightly on her stomach and his chin on her left shoulder. She turned to look at him and he grinned charmingly, leaning forward to kiss her briefly while he could, without the other man complaining about it.

"Of course! This is big; it's the start of the second generation of Marauders! Oh, the tricks and pranks this kid is going to learn!" She didn't have a chance to protest as behind her Sirius had stuck his face into the fire and was speaking to, judging from the disembodied voice, Remus.

"Oi, Remus, get yourself over here now! Marauder meeting is almost in session and don't argue with me Moony; it's important. Oh, and try to get a hold of Pete, even if he's visiting his mum. He's not answering my calls, the wanker." She could hear grumbling from the other end and felt herself smile when a loud voice sighed out a half-hearted agreement.

"I'll be over in a bit."

**~xoxo~**

_6._ They stayed up late into the night, drinking firewhiskey (or butterbeer, in Lily's case) and celebrating the news before beginning to ponder their futures, too drunk to properly reprimand Wormtail when he finally showed up, muttering excuses about his mother taking a turn for the worst. He was clutching his left arm gingerly to his chest as the others got more rowdy and hedged around giving an answer when asked what was wrong, claiming;

"Nothing, I just clocked it on the door on my way out the house. It'll be fine soon enough, don't worry." And then went on to join in on the teasing of James that Sirius had instigated by calling him 'Daddy Prongs' repeatedly, in increasingly bad imitations of baby voices.

Over the course of those few hours, Lily was reminded of exactly how much she loved her boys. And they were hers, all four of them held a special place in her heart that belonged solely to them and on one else would ever be able to take it.

When Remus and Peter had passed out on the sofa and floor respectively, Sirius had shuffled off to his room and Lily and James were in their own bed, the latter already snoring softly, the redhead allowed herself to reflect on the previous twenty four hours. Everything had changed so quickly she hadn't quite caught up, but she knew that despite still being apprehensive about the future, everything was going to be okay. Oh, things would be tough at times; she'd picked the Marauders to be her family, after all. But as long as they stuck together, nothing would go wrong. And maybe, she thought to herself as she snuggled deeper under the covers, James instinctively wrapping an arm around her waist and buried his face into the crook of her neck, breathing heavily into her ear in his drunken stupor, this child would be something special.

* * *

**Okay, I've been working on this for the better part of two weeks, so I really hope it isn't too bad. A flash of inspiration is what gave birth to this mini-monster and despite having it planned out to a certain degree, there are still bits that I find extremely awkward (beginning of section 4) or rushed in places, but after rewriting three times, I've given up and am just leaving it as it is. Anywho, I hope you enjoyed the brief cameos by some of the other characters, I just wanted to see how many I could reasonably fit in without it becoming too ridiculous (hopes I succeeded)**

**It's really late right now, and my brain has kind of stopped functioning I was editing this so much, so if there're any Briticisms that don't make sense, let me know and I'll define them to the best of my ability.**

**Yes, I did insinuate that Peter had just got the Dark Mark, and although the time might not match up with canon, who's to say that he hadn't been working with the Death Eaters for a while before that? Oh yeah, 'Bee' is code for Dumbledore, seeing as it's an old English word for bumble bee and I somehow think that members of the Order wouldn't have gone around announcing what they were doing where people could hear them (or see, in this case). And if anyone was wondering, _Sapias_ is Latin for wise, or be smart, which I thought was fitting.**

**But, let me know what you think of it, just don't be too harsh, yeah?**

**~V**


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